Snoring is a breathing noise generated by relaxed peripheral structures of the soft palate and the uvula vibrating while a current of breathing air passes through the airway that is narrowed due to various causes during sleep.
In obese persons, the airway is also affected by obesity and becomes narrower, and thus the recent rise in obesity has caused an abrupt increase in the number of patients with snoring difficulties.
Such snoring may often develop into sleep apnea in which apnea frequently occurs during sleep. Severe snoring may cause sleep disturbances such as excessive daytime sleepiness and the like.
In addition, hypoxia during sleep caused due to sleep apnea may cause various complications in the cardiovascular pulmonary vascular system.
Accordingly, as interest in treatments for snoring has increased in recent times, methods of maintaining a patient's airway in an expanded state during sleep and apparatuses related thereto are being developed and proposed in various types. Most conventional snoring prevention devices are provided to be mounted in the mouth during sleep.
Most of the mouth-mounted snoring prevention devices of the related art generally include an upper jaw mounting frame configured to be fitted onto the upper jaw, a lower jaw mounting frame configured to be fitted onto the lower jaw, and a lower jaw advance unit configured to push the lower jaw mounting frame forward to advance the lower jaw and expand the airway in a state in which the upper jaw and the lower jaw are closed. Generally, the pair of lower jaw advance units are formed at both of the upper jaw mounting frame and the lower jaw mounting frame, and the upper jaw mounting frame and the lower jaw mounting frame are fixed by a fixing jig to maintain an advanced state of the lower jaw mounting frame in a state in which the lower jaw mounting frame is advanced by the lower jaw advance unit.
However, since the pair of mouth-mounted snoring prevention devices should be installed at left and right sides of the lower jaw advance unit and the fixing jig should be separately provided, a volume of the device is increased and a feeling of irritation occurs when the device is mounted in the mouth.
In addition, in the conventional snoring prevention device having the pair of lower jaw advance units disposed at both of the upper and lower jaw mounting frame, since lateral movement between the lower jaw mounting frame and the upper jaw mounting frame is limited by the lower jaw advance units of both left and right sides of the lower jaw, it becomes almost impossible to decrease a wearing sensation in the lateral movement of the upper jaw and the lower jaw.